The Greatest Threat to Charter Schools

Whether you call it "regulation creep" or "bureaucratic creep" the greatest threat to charter schools is the gradual re-creation of the public education system charter schools were created to be different than.

This belief that crops up from a variety of people and in a variety of scenarios is manifest when someone believes more regulation is better (e.g. requiring licensed teachers), everyone else in public education is doing it (e.g. step and level pay schedules rather than pay for performance), or simply not questioning new requirements (e.g. charter schools must use their school district's auditors). Every year the Legislature attempts to re-create the system that has already failed many public school students. The most alarming part of this, is that this quietly creeps up on individuals involved in charter schools and the movement as a whole.

Some of the charter schools operating in Colorado look very much like a district-operated school. Conversely, some charter schools refuse to accept any federal funds and deposit their monthly per student revenue in their own bank account. At least one district in the state requires their charter schools to use the district's financial accounting software, which means charter school funds are kept in the district's coffers until they are paid via a requisitioned check.

People involved in charter schools, especially governing boards and administrators, need to be vigilant about maintaining the autonomy the original concept of charter schools envisioned as a means of "doing things differently." Every single action needs to be evaluated with the question, "Does this allow us to maintain the original concept of charter schools, which is to be autonomous and free from bureaucracy?"